


Dial Tone

by canonjohnlock



Category: Sherlock (TV)
Genre: Angst, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-12-13
Updated: 2014-12-13
Packaged: 2018-03-01 05:53:58
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 983
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2762093
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/canonjohnlock/pseuds/canonjohnlock
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>John goes missing and Sherlock doesn't cope well.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Dial Tone

**Author's Note:**

> I read a fic similar to this plot and I liked it so I thought I'd write one, too. Can't remember the name of it or the author, but credit to them all the same.:)
> 
> also available on wattpad: https://www.wattpad.com/story/60497338-dial-tone

Sherlock sometimes felt like he had no memory of life before John. It was like all his life up until the moment they met is a blurred mess. Sherlock would sometimes voice that to John, as they lay lazily in bed in the humid afternoon heat. He hated getting sappy like that but he felt it needed saying.

On the twelfth of March, John went to the market for some eggs, milk, and bread. Sherlock didn’t notice his absence at all; too deep in his mind palace to notice the emptiness in the flat. When Mrs Hudson walked up the stairs the next morning and asked where John had popped off to, Sherlock sat bolt upright.

He called.

_You’ve reached John Watson. If this is Sherlock, you can get the pen yourself. If you’re not Sherlock, leave a message._

He called again.

_You’ve reached John Watson. If this is Sherlock, you can get the pen yourself. If you’re not Sherlock, leave a message._

And again.

_You’ve reached John Watson. If this is Sherlock, you can get the pen yourself. If you’re not Sherlock, leave a message._

And again.

_You’ve reached John Watson. If this is Sherlock, you can get the pen yourself. If you’re not Sherlock, leave a message._

Sherlock recalled John saying he was going off to Tesco for some basics and if he needed anything. Sherlock had grunted in return.

In the days that followed the disappearance, Sherlock would retrace every possible route to Tesco. He would go by cab, by foot, by bike. He stared at fuzzy CCTV surveillance until his eyes watered. The New Scotland Yard was busy trying to find a lead. The case was ranked top priority.

A week after John disappeared, Sherlock had gone over the path to Tesco exactly four hundred and seventy-two times, had called John’s mobile five hundred and one times, and had yelled at Anderson twice. The chances of finding John had dropped, but Sherlock refused to admit it.

They found John’s phone in a darkened alley, screen shattered.

Sherlock hadn’t slept for seventy-two hours. Molly drugged him and he slept for fourteen hours. Lestrade had to hold him back when he woke enraged.

One month after the disappearance, Sherlock still refused to sleep in their bed. He refused to eat. He refused to talk. He traced the route to Tesco again.

You’ve reached John Watson. If this is Sherlock, you can get the pen yourself. If you’re not Sherlock, leave a message.

Two months after the disappearance, Sherlock was hospitalized and fed through a tube. The Yard found one of John’s shoes. Sherlock ripped the tube out himself and was found in a hospital gown at the NSY nibbling on some biscuits.

Two months and three days later, the shoe was declared not John’s.

Sherlock stole Lestrade’s gun.

Three months after John disappeared, Lestrade tried to tell Sherlock that they would have to stop searching soon. That he should prepare to bury an empty casket.

Lestrade suffered mild injuries.

Three months and two weeks after the disappearance, Sherlock dug up his hidden pack of cigarettes and smoked the whole thing in two hours. Sherlock was placed in the hospital again for severe depression.

_You’ve reached John Watson. If this is Sherlock, you can get the pen yourself. If you’re not Sherlock, leave a message._

Four months after John disappeared, Sherlock called up an old friend with some connections. Lestrade caught him and Sherlock was placed under constant watch.

He watched the CCTV footage from 12 March again. He traced the path to Tesco again.

Four months and one week after the disappearance, Sherlock found new footage from the day John went missing.

He entered a familiar shop, one Sherlock would often drag him into to. He came out with a box of new beakers and large smile on his face.

Sherlock and went up and down the strip near the small shop. He found nothing.

_You’ve reached John Watson. If this is Sherlock, you can get the pen yourself. If you’re not Sherlock, leave a message._

Five months after the disappearance, Sherlock finally got a hold of his fix.

Five months and one week later, Sherlock found one of John’s old notebooks from when he was in uni, his slanted, messy handwriting indented on the curling pages. Lestrade had to pull the gun out of Sherlock’s hands.

Six months later, Harry demanded they bury an empty casket. Sherlock didn’t attend the funeral.

Six months and three weeks later, Lestrade said they found something.

It was John’s jumper, the one Sherlock had gotten him two years ago. It was dirty and tattered and wet, but it was a lead. Sherlock didn’t sleep for four days.

Seven months after John’s disappearance, Lestrade found a body in an abandoned warehouse three hundred kilometers away from 221B.

Dental records proved it to be John’s.

_You’ve reached John Watson. If this is Sherlock, you can get the pen yourself. If you’re not Sherlock, leave a message._

_You’ve reached John Watson. If this is Sherlock, you can get the pen yourself. If you’re not Sherlock, leave a message._

_You’ve reached John Watson. If this is Sherlock, you can get the pen yourself. If you’re not Sherlock, leave a message._

_You’ve reached John Watson. If this is Sherlock, you can get the pen yourself. If you’re not Sherlock, leave a message._

_You’ve reached John Watson. If this is Sherlock, you can get the pen yourself. If you’re not Sherlock, leave a message._

_Please leave a message after the tone_.

“I love you, John. I love you. I love you so much and I hope you know that there is only one part of my life: my life while you were in it. There was no before and there will be no after. I love-”

_End of message. To listen again, press one._

“I love you, too,” he whispered.


End file.
